quarta-feira, 13 de junho de 2018

Pride&Passion in a fun Jane Austen mix

Hello, there!I've been talking about Jane Austen Brazilian soap opera weekly, commenting chapters and developments - always in Portuguese. As all Globo network soap operas, Orgulho e Paixão (Pride and Passion) is set to last 6 to 7 months, so it's reaching its middle with all Austen major works jumbled together.

Darcy and Lizzy
pic from aquiacontece

Facebook friends asked me to put together a quick recounting of what's going on so far. Also, and I hope I can manage, give you updates in English of the new developments. Tough task, I know, but I do enjoy watching Austen Nation unfold on my TV 6 times a week.First, let me tell you a bit about Pride & Passion.

Darcy and Lizzy, again...
pic from artena critica

It's daytime TV, airs 6:30PM, fit for all audiences (although there are kisses, hugs and hot scenes are beautifully insinuated), an inspired work, a fanfiction if you will. Not exactly an adaptation as it's not supposed to retell any of the novels ipis litteris. Since the beginning it's said to be a mix of Austen's major works in a WIP (let me take a moment here to say that all Globo soap operas are WIP that change according to audience response. Good or bad, it's how its done.). Before it started, I put together a list of characters ordering novels x new names, although in Portuguese, I believe it's pretty understandable. Also, the producers seem to be pretty aware of Austen Nation since they are always quoting or recreating the many productions and adaptations we all love. I've listed a few here.

Darcy in waistcoasts... Yummy
pic from twitter

The 'inspired work' part is very difficult for Brazilian Austen fans to understand, JAFF isn't very popular here. People call to Heavens and UN police forces and Devil's spawn to take the show off air because 'it's corrupting Austen's works'. I'm not making fun here, I swear.

Lizzy- Elisabeta

That said, the show is a lot of fun IF you could overlook the weak soap opera subplots. The best form to talk about the major plot is listing the many, many couples and all the 'ships' flooding our twitter.Time table is Brasil, 1910; an era of new beginnings in the big city (São Paulo) and the fictional small town (Coffee Valley). Although at the time Brasil was full of European immigrants coming to work on the fields and plantations, it's barely mentioned. Pride and Prejudice is the conducting line - five sisters of a matchmaking mamma. The Bennets are called Benedito and the girls come from 3 novels; each one brings her own hero.

The Bennets - Beneditos

the girls in order: Lizzy - Lydia - Cecília - Mariana - Jane

pic from correio braziliense

Darcy Williamson and Elisabeta Benedito (Lizzy) - Pride and Prejudice

a DIZZY kiss

Elisabeta is Elisabeth with an 'a' like the one Einstein fell for, a small town girl full of big dreams. She wants to see and live in the big scary world, marriage is something she wants to avoid.Darcy (first name here) is an English guy who smiles a lot, rarely broods although it's said that he is serious. He has come to the small town of Valley to take care of this father's business - the railroad that will develop the coffee production. Lord Williamson, his dad, is alive and kicking but lives in London with Charlotte, his sister (Georgiana in canon).

fighting for trousers

They meet by chance fighting for a pair of trousers in the small towns' only clothes store. They need to dress up for a special occasion, a ball matchmaking Ema (Emma) will throw in order to allow girls to meet guys.Elisabeta arrives dressed in a tux exactly as the one Darcy is wearing, he is enraptured. The fighting and bickering and kissing follows pretty much as in canon (aside the kissing part), only this Lizzy is very rude and this Darcy is very smiley.He soon asks to be her boyfriend, she accepts, the figthing... continues!She then discovers his meddling on Camilo (Bingley) and Jane Benedito - Pride and Prejudice relationship as Susana (Lady Susan), the vilan, has plotted to happen. As Susana works for Camilo's mom, Julieta (Lady Catherine), a big gossip war is set and the guys move to São Paulo in order to run from the country chits.

Jane and Camilo (Bingley)

A few days later, the girls follow - Elisabeta and Jane - with their friend Ema in search for Lidia who escaped with Uirapuru, the poet (George Wickham in canon) after he deflowered Mariana (Marianne) the other sister. Only then it's known the cad had previously preyed on Darcy's sister Charlotte in a letter he sent to Elisabeta. Get the mixing of novels and the jumbling?Uirapuru is Wickham+Willoughby+Churchill in a P&P+Emma mix as once they arrive in the big city, they meet a very modern girl called Ludmila who is kinda Charlotte Lucas for her pragmatism but in reality is Uirapuru's secret fiancée in a Jane Fairfax rendition.

Lidia - Uiapuru - Mariana
pic from TV mix

Many characters and ideas and novels together... Let´s keep going!

Don't let your nerves take the best of you...
This is just the start of this Austen mix!

Let's talk about Ema and her set of characters, a sizzling one!Jorge, the lawyer (George Knightley) + Ernesto, the poor worker (Fred Wentworth ?) and Ema, baroness of Coffee Valley (Emma Woodhouse) - Emma + Persuasion Sounds weird? Yeah!... This show has crazy stuff, the characters are rarely only based on one Austen face, they have this and that from several, say lines from one or another.

Jorge and Ema
pic from f5 folha

Anyway, Ema. From the begining we learn her rich family is bankrupt (her gradfather is the Coffee beans Baron, so his son and graddaughter are known as petit baron and baroness, although the title is dead because Monarchy is dissolved in Brazil by 1910). Their big farm is indebited, the coffee production isn't as profitable and they keep spending as if money wasn't a problem. Soon they are thrown out by Julieta (Lady Catherine, Camilo/Bingley's mom) who bought their farm and sold to the Darcys. Jorge is the family's lawyer, always have been in love with Ema, but didn't say anything because she's much younger than him. Once she is broke, she falls for the poor worker who's always bickering on her, Ernesto, and who had been in love with Elisabeta a few chapters earlier.

Ema and Ernesto
pic from coluna retratos

Stay with me here, things are jumbled up...So, Ernesto (probably Wentworth) is middle son of an Italian workers family who's always fighting for his rights and somehow forges friendship with the Baron (Ema's grandfather) in a kind of Untouchables relationship. The old man puts the tough guy in charge of his granddaughter's security and fight here, fight there, they end up in a lake...

This couple (Erma) is making a lot of waves, it's said they steal the show putting Darcy and Elisabeta (Darlisa) on the back burner. I'm a Darcy junkie, specially this Darcy - actor Thiago Lacerda - who I've considered and used as a Darcy a few times here and here and here. Anyway, I admit Ema and Ernesto are giving me the chills!

twitter

Back to the story, the girls are in the big city where Jane marries Camilo (Bingley) in a false wedding set by his mother, and now we arrive in another big 'ship': Aurélio, petit baron of coffee Valley (Mr. Woodhouse) and Julieta, queen of the Coffee cultivation (Lady Catherine De Bourgh) - Emma + Pride and Prejudice. Here you need to let go of canon and imagine how this odd couple could happen... Especially in such young ages for both.

Julieta and Aurelio
pic from twitter

She has a dark past we are starting to get hints (when she visits her late husband's grave, she brings roses to cut off the blooms and leave only the thorns for him! Ouch!). A very stern lady, she desinherits Camilo (Bingley) when he insists on Jane.Aurélio is a bon vivant bankrupt and almost immediately falls head over heels for the strong widow who manages her own business making a lot of money. Kisses are stolen, fights are fought and now they are starting to wrok together. Another lovely couple.

He saves her favorite horse's life
pic from twitter

Back to the Bennet/Benedito girls, by this time all of them are deflowered* but only one is legally married and we arrive at Northanger: Rômulo Tibúrcio (Mr. Tilney) and Cecília Benedito (Catherine Morland) - Northanger Abbey An adorable couple just like in the novel, both very beautiful actors, they are together since the beginning. Rômulo is a freshly graduated doctor and a womanizer, Cecília is a bookworm, and at first thinks he has a dark secret. He gives up all floozies for her, they have a lovely wedding.

Cecília e Rômulo
pic from extra online

Once she moves to his home, the Park Mansion (noticed the name is similar to Mansfield Park???), the ghost of his late mother haunts her.Will tell you about this later.

Mariana and Cel Brandão
pic from vix

The other sister comes from S&S, a novel that never got to me, but here their plot is great. Cel Brandão (Brandon) and Mariana Benedito (Marianne Dashwood) - Sense and Sensibility He is older, friends with Jorge (Knightley), an introvert mature man who falls for the volcano inside the girl. She craves adventure, but not as her older sister Elisabeta, Mariana wants to live the thrills she reads in books and falls for the mystery red rider - a kind of a Valley hero with a tiny motorcycle.

Red rider and his gal in a dayfream of hers
pic from tv foco

Guess who is the red rider? Yeah, Brandon...

Red rider saves his love
pic from globoplay

That's why Uirapuru (Wickham) wins her over quite easily, he disguises himself as the red rider. After he sleeps with her, he leaves a letter telling the truth, she tries to kill herself, the true rider saves her and when she discovers who he is, she falls for Brandão who was always in love with her. (who, who, who, whoville... sorry.) Only then, he realizes she is too young for him and she has to disguise herself as a man rider to win his trust. How about that for S&S?

Mariana as Mario, the rider
pic from uol

Only girl left is the spicy one. Two soldiers + Uirapuru, the poet (Wickham) and Lídia Benedito (Lydia) - Pride and Prejudice She is much like the character in canon and all the adaptations, only here played a very

Lidiapic from Kogut

very beautiful actress. Her beaus are two soldiers interested in wooing her - only one, the sttutering lad, wants to marry her but obviously he is not the one she wants. After fighting her sister Mariana, Uirapuru's girlfriend, she happily runs away with him to São Paulo where he hides her in a brothel. There, once Darcy and Elisabeta find her, she meets Charlotte Darcy and they fight over the cad because Lidia can't accept he is a cad.Once back at the Valley, her mother is desperate to marry her off because... Well, we don't know yet.

Lidia at the brothel, Uirapuru among the ladies
pic from zacarias

Lidia among soldiers back at the Valley
pic from globoplay

*About deflowered sisters: At this point in the story, all the major couples are well into their own subplots as I'm telling you above. Even though the show is set in 1910, the characters have little concern about strict rules of propriety as if they belonged to 2018 society rules... The Benedito girls walk around the city in their petticoats and stays, visit boys' chambers, frequently meet them unchaperoned, etc.Not surprinsingly, the 5 sisters are very modern in sexual terms as well.

see what I mean?
pic from twitter

Elisabeta (Lizzy) discovered that Darcy was the man of her life even if she doesn't want to marry him. The first proposal was very abrupt, in front of the whole family, she was shocked!So, after a while, she thought it right to love him in all their glory out of wed lock. I mean, why not? Right?

He didn't complain, was pretty pleased in letting her seduce him and jumped along the maiden new ideals. Go figure.

Their hot sequences are oh-so-good for daytime TV
pic from twitter

Jane married her beau unwares the celebration was nule because her mother-in-law hired an actor to serve as catholic priest.Mariana (Marianne Dashwood) decided it was ok to give herself to her boyfriend, Uirapuru (Wickham), even without a marriage proposal or hint of serious intentions.Cecília (Catherine Morland) had a proper marriage.Lidia (Lydia) ran away with Uirapuru, he took her to the big city to hide her in a brothel house he's friends with the owner.Ema (Emma) - not a Benedito sister, but as good as if - is still maiden. So far.Charlotte Williansom (Georgiana Darcy) and Josephine (Mrs. Tilney) No, they are not a couple, but they do have some kind of tutoring relationship. Josephine faked her death a long time ago and suddenly returned. In São Paulo she met Charlotte at the brothel - both were after Uirapuru (Wickham) - and the older lady decides to help the younger one conquer her desires- both erotic and of revenge.

Charlotte and Josephine
pic from central de noticias

Susana, the vilan - Lady Susan The true bad girl, plots against Darcy and Elisabeta as Caroline Bingley would lacking Lady Susan Vernon's charms. Has a very resourceful and funny minion, Petúlia the maid. They are both very accomplished actresses and their scenes are always fun. Susana has many secrets, some her maid use to manipulate her, but mostly she wants to marry Darcy for his money intending to use his nights for a bit (he is a hunk after all) before finishing him off.

Petúlia and Susana

Fani, the vilan (Fany Price) - Mansfield Park Forget all about wallflower Fany Price, here she is a scheming bitch intent on tormenting everyone in the Tibúrcio (Tilney) family. From the poor workers family, she was raised as a maid-step daughter in the rich Park Mansion but when Mrs. Tibúrcio (Josephine) dies (fakes her death), Fani is considered a simple maid improper to love the younger son, Edmundo (yeah, Edmund...). He is sent to Europe in order to complete his studies, she lives with her pain.

Fani and Edmundo
pic from ofuxico

Now he has returned to marry Ema to profit from her family´s name in exchange for his family's money - following Mr Tibúrcio's orders.Lord Williamson (Mr Darcy father) - Pride and Prejudice Opposes to his liaison with Elisabeta for all P&P reasons, very much acted as Lady Catherine de Bourgh... as well. The actor is very similar to Thiago Lacerda who plays Darcy, they've been father and son before.

Darcy and Lord Williamson

But, to our surprise, there'll be another Lady Catherine... His sister, Lady Margareth Williamson, Darcy's aunt, who'll arrive with her daughter Briana (Anne) demanding marriage as was promised in their early age.Aside from all this, there are minor characters and minor plots like Elisabeta's jobs - first in Ludmilla's factory as a secretary and then in a newspaper as a writer. Another vilan in small town Coffee Valley, a farmer interested in Julieta's farms and Brandão's bike.A slave daughter, Jorge's maid, who discovers her father is the Baron, Ema's grandfather.A tea house and its owner.Mom and father Benedito and their quest to marry/respect their daughters.Will try to tell you more as the story enfolds as the second P&P proposal: Elisabeta proposed to Darcy on her knees! I loved it!

D: You must allow me to tell you how I ardently love and admire you.E: Darrcy Williamson, would you be my husband?

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Quem sou eu

I´m a 30+ years old Brazilian architect who has found a soft spot for Pride and Prejudice's Mr Darcy. After years reading lovely stories about him and Lizzy I decided to try my hand writing and loved it. Now I just can´t stop.